Apple admits to deliberately slowing older iPhones

Apple, the American multi-national technology company, has acknowledged it has taken action that slows the performance of its older iPhones.

"Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, [when they] have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components", the company said.

Audio will be available later today. This year's iOS 11.2 extended the feature to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. After a iPhone battery replacement, CPU speed resumed to factory setting 1400MHz.

People anxious about performance could replace batteries, which Apple does for free for iPhones covered by warranty or for $79 if that is not the case.

The tech giant revealed in a statement, reported by Tech Crunch, that it released an update to its iOS operating system previous year for its iPhone 6, 6S and SE products. "It's clear that controversies like this - underpinned by conspiracy theories around planned obsolescence - sprout up because there is a lack of communication between device manufacturers like Apple and consumers", said Warren and Statt.

"Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices", a spokesperson for Apple said.

The statement from Apple came in response to a report from earlier this week from Primate Labs, the company behind the Geekbench processor benchmarking software. That's why older phones tend to have much worse battery life compared to newer devices.

The iPhone doesn't start flashing an alert when your battery is in trouble - it just starts to curtail your phone's processing power. The suit, originally spotted via TMZ, also notes that Apple's behavior lowers the resale value of existing iPhones and underhandedly coerces iPhone owners to upgrade to newer models.

But most-repeated point of criticism was that Apple could have done a better job explaining this to its users.

The issue appears to be rectified by getting affected batteries replaced by Apple, says Geekbench, but iPhone users may conclude that their handset is out of date and that they need to buy a new one. Apple charges $79 to replace the battery of an iPhone that's no longer covered by a warranty.

Apple has further delved into the issue of lithium-ion batteries on its website, which have a limited life span.